Thursday, January 03, 2019 11:00 am

India deports second group of Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar

Associated Press

GAUHATI, India – India on Thursday deported a second small group of Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar after ordering the expulsion of members of the Myanmar minority group and others who entered the country illegally.

Senior police officer Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta said the five members of a family – three men and two women – were handed over to Myanmar authorities at a border crossing at Moreh in Manipur state.

The five had been in detention since 2014, when they were found in India's northeast without valid travel documents.

In October, India deported a first group of seven Rohingya Muslims for entering the country illegally in 2012.

About 700,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since August 2017 to escape a brutal campaign of violence by Myanmar's military. An estimated 40,000 other Rohingya have taken refuge in parts of India. Less than 15,000 are registered with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

Many have settled in areas of India with large Muslim populations, including the southern city of Hyderabad, the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, New Delhi, and the Himalayan region of Jammu-Kashmir. Some have taken refuge in northeast India bordering Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The Indian government says it has evidence there are extremists who pose a threat to the country's security among the Rohingya. India is fighting insurgencies in northern Kashmir and in its northeastern states.